‘Kick’
For Jim Allen Memorial
Auckland Art Gallery Atrium
17 June 2023
Kick Performance
OFFSITE: A tribute to Jim Allen at Futuna Chapel
November 11, 2023
Pyramid Club presents renowned Aotearoa sonic explorer Phil Dadson at Futuna Chapel in a special solo concert as a tribute to his former teacher, the revered artist Jim Allen. Allen (who taught Phil at Elam art school in the 1960s) has been called the “father of experimental art” in New Zealand. He was a pioneer of post-object art and performance art in this country, and is regarded as the most influential art educator of his generation. Allen died in June this year aged 100. Futuna, one of NZ’s most iconic buildings, is the site of some of Jim Allen’s most important and enduring artworks, and this concert (and following panel talk) is a celebration of Allen’s contribution to art and culture in Aotearoa.
Phil Dadson was close to Jim Allen throughout his life and Phil’s performance at Futuna touched on some of Jim’s favoured performance ideas and sound makers. Also to have performed is DSLB (aka Chrissie Butler) and artist Tim Barlow who presented a new group performance piece taking Jim Allen’s 1974 performance ‘Contact’ as a departure point. The concert was then followed by a panel discussion on Jim Allen’s work and legacy by a heavyweight panel of artists and writers including Phil Dadson, Liz Thomson, Greg O’Brien, Christina Barton and Tim Barlow.
Phil Dadson is one of New Zealand’s most important living artists and a seminal figure in the history of sonic arts in Aotearoa. His highly inventive trans-disciplinary approach encompasses experimental musical instruments and sonic objects, video/sound installation, music composition, graphic scores, drawing, sound sculptures, improvisation and collaboration. Founded in 1974, the group From Scratch was Dadson’s central creative outlet through the 1970s and 1980s, producing internationally celebrated performance works encompassing Dadson’s mixed interests in instrument making, composition and visual aesthetics and underpinned by environmental and political themes. Since the group’s heyday in the 1980s Phil has continued to create with interminable energy, exhibiting, performing and producing solo and collaborative work around the globe.
DSLB is the solo project of Chrissie Butler from Mr Sterile Assembly fame, whose “sideways lyrics and staked up patterns” bring a glistening glean to erogenous ears.
Tim Barlow is a multimedia artist whose installations, performance, and social artworks explore intersections of environment and ethics, community activism and humour. Barlow’s new work ‘Self-Mediated; Health Professionals grapple with new information’ has been created specifically for Futuna chapel and takes elements of Jim Allen’s influential 1974 performance ‘Contact’ as a departure point. ‘Self-mediated’ will incorporate a variety of contemporary media forms into a multi-sensory game where a team of Health Professionals undertake a quest to create a well-adjusted ‘self ‘. Note; there may be loud noises, confrontational themes, flashing lights and a smoke machine utilised during this performance.
OFFSITE: Panel Discussion: ‘Jim Allen, Futuna Chapel and the reverberating present’
Jim Allen has been called the “father of experimental art” in New Zealand. He was a pioneer of post-object art and performance art in this country, and is regarded as the most influential art educator of his generation. Allen died in June this year aged 100. Futuna chapel, one of NZ’s most iconic buildings, is the site of some of Jim Allen’s most important and enduring artworks including the dramatic coloured window light modulators, carved Polynesian Jesus figure, and plaster cast ‘Stations’ around the chapel interior. At Futuna on November 11th we celebrate Jim Allen’s contribution to art and culture in Aotearoa with a tribute concert by Phil Dadson and others at 2pm, followed by this panel of heavyweight artists, writers and thinkers who will talk around Jim Allen’s life, work and legacy including:
Phil Dadson (ONZM) - sound artist
Elizabeth Thomson - artist
Tim Barlow - artist
Christina Barton (ONZM) - curator and writer
Greg O'Brien (MNZM) - writer
Jim Allen
Born in Wellington in 1922, Jim Allen served as a machine gunner in Italy during Second World War. After the war he stayed in Italy undertaking art studies at Perugia University and Instituto d’Arte Florence, followed by a Diploma of Fine Arts from University of Canterbury and in 1951 he became an Associate of the Royal College of Art, London. In 1976 he was among the early exhibitors at the Experimental Art Foundation in Adelaide, South Australia.
Jim Allen's work had a significant influence on the development of post-object practices in New Zealand. His environmental sculptures place the experiential elements of spectatorship foremost, and his performances emphasised ephemeral process over and above the physical object. Allen’s work is included in collections in countries all over the world, including the UK, America, Australia, Japan and New Zealand.
Alongside his pioneering art practice, Allen is regarded as the most influential art educator of his generation in Aotearoa and Australia, where he was a vital force in shaping the local art scene during the 1960s and 1970s. Employed by New Zealand’s Department of Education as part of the Gordon Tovey-led art education initiative, Allen taught a radical hands-on teaching in schools in the Far North alongside the revolutionary educator Elwyn Richardson. Allen’s commitment to student-led education informed his tenure as head of sculpture at Elam School of Fine Arts at the University of Auckland (1960–76) and as the founding Head of the Sydney College of the Arts (1977–87).
